Arrow Alerts
by hallow777
Summary: Collection of Oneshots. 15: Felicity and Oliver find out that while the members of their team survived the fight with Slade, Felicity's apartment didn't fair too well against people stealing during the attack on the city.
1. Chapter 1

**I got to work this morning and sat down with my tablet and keyboard and then found out the internet wasn't working so I pulled up a blank document and out of no where, this happened.**

* * *

It was a well known fact that Felicity loved her tablet, it was a lot like Oliver's notebook in that you were very, very lucky if you were permitted to touch it.

He had gotten to touch the tablet a grand total of one time and that was only because she needed him to hold it as she fixed her shoe once. Considering that he had let her hold and look at his notebook a lot more than that, it seemed a little unfair.

Oliver quickly flipped the lock on her living room window and then punched in the key code to the fancy alarm system he had all but forced her to install shortly after she started working as part of "Team Arrow" as she calls it.

They had officially finished their "Hood" business hours ago, crossing yet another name off the list, but as usual, Oliver couldn't sleep and ended up putting the suit back on and going out to patrol a little.

Normally he didn't do anything "Hood" related without at least one of them knowing in case something goes wrong but some times he just couldn't stand being still. But as his luck would have it, the second time he went out on his own he got ambushed and they didn't find him until the next morning passed out in an alley. He had managed to take out his ambushers but they got him with a sleeping gas and he was just very, very lucky no one came looking down that alley until Felicity and Dig got to him. And so now when he went out patrolling without them, he made sure to wear a device Felicity had made that would alert her and Dig if he got hurt.

Tonight, the city was strangely quiet. Which is why he ended up crawling through Felicity's window.

He wanted to make sure she was okay after the mission earlier, it didn't go badly but it was pretty emotionally draining on all of them since the guy they were after tried to use his newborn daughter as a hostage. They won though, and no one got hurt except for the man who deserved it but he knew Felicity had been pretty upset at the thought that that man could have even thought to use his baby like that.

But that was only part of the reason he was there. The other reason was simply that he just didn't want to go back to the mansion right now. It was too big, too open and it gave him way too much space to think and sometimes, he really just didn't want to think.

So he was here, sneaking in through the window to see his friend. He half expected her to be awake and in the living room, but then he caught sight of the clock in the darkened room and realised it was nearing two in the morning.

Just a quick peek to make sure she was sleeping soundly- because you know, she could be having nightmares about the mission or something- and then he would leave and try to get some sleep before he had to be at the office in the morning.

He pushed the door to her bedroom open as quietly as possible but then nearly woke her up by laughing.

Moonlight flooded into her room through the window, shining off the tablet as she lay curled around it in her sleep. He shook his head at her and got the feeling that she hadn't just fallen asleep like that since the case was closed.

He briefly thought of taking it from her arms and placing it on the table or just opening it or maybe leaving a note on it just to bug her but then he thought better of it. He would probably unintentionally mess something up and she would lock him out of his office at QC.

Again.

He left her and her tablet alone and backed out of her room slowly, closing the door back behind him and heading back to the window he came in from.

She would never know he was there.

Except, when she woke up in the morning she did.

She had some searches going last night before she went to bed so the first thing she did when she woke up was check her tablet and see if they had found anything.

They hadn't found anything yet but she had an alert from her modified security system and smiled when a video of Oliver sneaking in through her window popped up on her screen. She cropped an image from the video to use for future use- because who knew when she would need blackmail?- and then deleted the video just in case anyone ever found it. It wouldn't look too good for either of them if someone saw the Hood sneaking in her apartment.

Oliver didn't know that she had modified the security system he put in to alert her via tablet when someone tripped it or put in the code and to automatically switch on the video cameras she had put in separately.

Oliver also didn't know that the device she made for when he goes out patrolling alone also sends her alerts when it is activated and put on so she would know when he goes out.

So next time he decides to pay her a late night visit? She'd be waiting.

* * *

**I sat down and this happened with no planning whatsoever so most likely this will end up being a collection of one shots that may or may not be connected.**


	2. Chapter 2

**I would like to apologize for the typos and mistakes in the last chapter. I was not planning to write anything and I was writing on my tablet and I guess just didn't pay attention if spell check was on or not and didn't catch the errors myself when I reread it. But it's been edited now and hopefully that won't happen again.**

**And wow, this fandom is very, very supportive, it's amazing! Thank you all so much!**

* * *

Shortly after Oliver came back from the island after the man made earthquake, he dragged in a decent sized cot from god knows where and stuck it in a corner of the foundry that wasn't being used yet. With Moira still in jail and Thea spending way too much time with her boyfriend, the mansion was just too big and too empty sometimes for him to be comfortable there.

Once it was set up in the corner, Oliver spun around to see both Dig and Felicity just staring at him.

"This is mine," he points at the cot, "no one uses it but me. If you are tired, go home. You two spend too much time here anyway."

"Like you don't?" Felicity asked.

"I own this place. I can do what I want. I don't plan to be here all the time anyway, it's just in case."

Felicity and Dig looked at each other, silently deciding not to point out how much like a child that sounded and just let it go.

Choosing to sleep on an old cot instead of in the mansion certainly wasn't the oddest thing Oliver Queen has chosen to do.

* * *

A few weeks later, Felicity sat at her computers waiting for the results of a diagnostic test to come back on her computer. Someone had tried to trace them back and hack into their system and although they didn't manage to get in, she was making triple sure they didn't try to leave anything behind or didn't damage anything.

But she didn't realize just how long this test would take since she was making sure to be very, very thorough.

Diggle had left hours ago and Oliver was out patrolling, not knowing she was still there. He was definitely not going to be happy that she hadn't left at the normal time with Diggle but she kept thinking what if the test found something? If it did she needed to get rid of it right away. What if the hackers left a virus and it took over the entire system because she decided to go home?

It would be highly unlikely but it could happen.

Probably.

You could never be too safe with an entire computer full of illegal vigilante stuff.

One hand continued typing, running searches on the names in the book while she didn't have much else to do and one hand was keeping her head propped up on the table and she tried to keep her eyes open.

She had the day off from Queen Consolidated tomorrow and didn't have to be back here until tomorrow night so if she could just stay up a little longer until the search finishes then she could sleep until noon tomorrow if she wanted.

But it was so quiet without Oliver making noise by either working out or sharpening his arrows that she was getting sleepier by the minute. She thought about turning on some music, but then she wouldn't hear Oliver come in when he's done patrolling and really didn't want to be startled this late at night.

Her head slipped off her hand and she caught herself just before her head slammed into her desk. If only she could just maybe take a little nap. Just for a few minutes while the search finished then she could check it, fix anything if she needed to and then go home.

But while her chair was very comfy for working in, it wasn't exactly suited for sleeping.

With a groan, Felicity leaned back in her chair and spun around a little, trying to wake herself up when she caught sight of the cot in the corner.

No.

She couldn't.

Oliver would be back soon from patrolling and he had made it pretty clear that they were not to use it.

But.

Sometimes his patrolling does take a while…

And it would only be just for a few minutes.

No, she couldn't.

But.

She bit her lip and looked between the computer and the cot before making a decision.

Just for a few minutes, he would never know.

* * *

Oliver slipped in the door to the foundry and then stopped in his tracks when he noticed that the lights were still on.

Diggle and Felicity should have left hours ago and it was kinda hard to forget to turn off the lights when you left thanks to the giant switch.

He silently pulled out an arrow and got it ready to fire as he hugged the wall and slowly headed down the stairs, keeping his eyes out for anything out of place.

He made his way into the lair and when his eyes landed on Felicity's computers that were still up and running and her shoes and purse still under the desk, he started to get worried.

He knew she was going to stay a little later than Diggle, did someone break in and take her while she was working?

They had cameras installed in the lair but they were set up not to come on unless a panic button of sorts was pressed- or Felicity just wanted to turn them on for whatever reason- so he quickly went over to her computers and started checking to see if the cameras had been turned on.

They hadn't been turned on and he was really starting to worry because if it was someone good enough to sneak in and sneak up behind her before she could trigger the cameras then it would be that much harder to track them down.

He quickly spun the chair around and got up, determined to find out how they got in to start with when he noticed blonde hair on his pillow on his cot.

Oh.

Oliver silently walked over to the cot and after checking to make sure she was okay and had just decided to take a nap apparently, he stepped back with a sigh.

Had he not been clear when he said it was his? And not to use it?

He was mildly irritated that he would have to go back to mansion now but he wasn't going to wake her up and make her go home now. She had clearly been waiting for something to finish on her computer but still. The vigilante took too much of their lives and free time already, he really didn't want them spending more time than they had to here.

He turned away from the cot and went to put up his bow in its case and then headed to the back where they had managed to rig up a shower room. Plumbers they were not but thanks to Felicity finding plans and giving them a general course on plumbing from the internet, they managed. It was by no means pretty but it worked. It wasn't like they could hire people to come down and install one.

Ten minutes later he came out dressed in a t-shirt and pants while drying his hair with a towel, when he had a thought.

He definitely should just go to the mansion but he had told them both that it was his…

And he really had planned just to stay here tonight since he didn't have to be at QC in the morning.

Oliver walked back over to the cot and looked at it. There was plenty of space left.

It would be invading her personal space though, however, technically it was his space she was in and they generally didn't have a problem being in each others personal space.

He hesitated for a minute more then glanced at the clock that told him it was nearly three in the morning and shrugged.

It would be awkward when they woke up but at least this wouldn't happen again.

* * *

Felicity slowly drifted back to consciousness and before even opening her eyes, she turned to the left and reached out a hand, intending to grab her glasses off of her nightstand but instead of finding her glasses, her hand whacked something that let out a grunt.

It took a second to register in her brain but when it did, she shot up in the bed, now fully awake.

"Wha-?" Everything was blurry since she didn't have her glasses on yet but she could definitely tell that was a distinctly Oliver shaped blur next to her.

In bed.

And then she remembered about her test last night and how she was only supposed to sleep for a little bit and get up before Oliver got back.

Clearly, that didn't work.

Oliver was awake now and watching her but she reached over to the other side and grabbed her glasses, slipping them on then grabbing her phone to see why the alarm she had set to wake her up after thirty minutes didn't go off.

Which was apparently because she was too sleepy to actually turn the alarm on.

Well. That was helpful.

She took a deep breath and then let it out before turning around to face Oliver who was propped up on his arms now.

"Um…Sorry? I was waiting for the diagnostic test to get done because I wanted to be very sure that the hackers from yesterday didn't leave us a little present. As in like a virus present, not an actual present present. But it was taking forever and I got so tired I was afraid I might completely miss a virus if it popped up because I couldn't keep my eyes open so I just was going to sleep for a little bit here because have you tried sleeping in that chair? It is not for sleeping at all and-"

"Felicity," he groaned, letting himself fall back on the bed, "I told you this was mine so that it will be available when I need it. And I'd rather you not spend all your free time here. I will sleep here when I want to regardless if you are using it or not because it is mine so if you don't want to wake up like this, don't do it again."

"O-Okay-" she was going to say more but then they both heard the door to the foundry open and Felicity sprung out of the bed and ran to her chair faster than she ever had in her life to see Diggle coming down the stairs.

"Felicity? You are still here?"

"Um, yeah. This test has been taking forever and I wanted to get it done before I went home."

"So you stayed all night?" Diggled asked as Oliver moving from the cot caught his eye and he raised his eyebrow at Felicity.

"It was supposed to be done hours ago but I guess I have more files than I thought but today is my day off so I can catch up on my sleep later- oh look it's done now and it didn't find anything so our systems are all clean. Well, guess I'll be going now," she stuck her phone in her bag and slipped on her shoes and quickly headed up the stairs and out the door before anyone could say anything more.

Diggle watched her leave and then looked back at Oliver, "Is there something I need to know?"

Oliver just looked at him and shrugged.

"I told her it was mine."

* * *

A week later, Oliver came back from patrolling to find the lights off but a certain IT girl turned EA sleeping in his bed again.

* * *

**For anyone wondering, there will probably be a continuation of sorts to the first chapter (and probably even a continuation to this) eventually. I'm just writing as the ideas come to me. **

**I will also take prompts. I can't promise I will actually do them because sometimes for the life of me I just can't think of anything to work with prompts but I will try.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Felicity is my favorite character so generally most of these will be at least somewhat Felicity related.**

* * *

So, visiting Russia? Not as fun as she had hoped. Well, not that it was really supposed to be fun anyway since they were here for Diggle and Lyla but still she was pretty sure it would have been a decent trip if Isabel hadn't decided to come along at the last minute.

And she really could have gone without knowing that Isabel had gotten to be pretty intimate with the inside of Oliver's hotel room, but that was an entirely different matter that she was determined to try and push out of her mind now that she was back home.

Felicity undid the multiple locks on the front door of her apartment, then entered the code for the security system but instead of beeping like it normally did to acknowledge she had entered the code, it stayed silent.

That's when Felicity noticed that the lights were on in the living room and she was pretty certain she made sure all the lights were off before she left on her trip. And she definitely wouldn't have left the TV on but she could hear the theme song to one of her favorite shows starting from where she was still standing by the door.

Felicity took a deep breath and started slowly and quietly as possible heading back to the front door so she could call Oliver- or the police, but probably Oliver first- but before she made it to the door, someone walked out of the kitchen and into her line of sight.

"Sara?" Felicity asked and instantly relaxed as the woman gave her a sheepish smile. She didn't exactly know the girl very well but she was pretty sure she wasn't there to kill her.

Probably.

But it had been a long day so she was willing to take her chances.

"What are you doing here? Is something wrong? If you were looking for Oliver, not that you would have any reason to look for him in my apartment of all places but if you couldn't find him it was because we had to go out to Russia to help out a friend. We just got back so he should be back at the mansion by now. Well actually, knowing him he is probably back at the lair doing some kind of ridiculous workout-" she was cut off finally by Sara smiling and shaking her head at her.

"You're still cute when you do that, but I'm not looking for Oliver."

"You're not?"

"No… I, uh…" Felicity had only known her for a small amount of time but she didn't seem like the kind of woman who wasn't confident in herself and the things she did so it was kind of odd to see her hesitating, almost embarrassed.

"I left town so my family would be safe but I couldn't stop thinking that maybe I should at least still keep an eye on them for a while but I couldn't go back to the clock tower and I was afraid to try and rent a room anywhere in the city in case I was recognized. So when I heard you and Ollie were heading out of town I thought I could borrow your place while you were gone," Felicity's eyebrows raised at that and Sara hurried to continue, "I was going to leave before you got back, I've stayed at lots of houses over the years without people knowing but it didn't feel right to do that to you so I decided to stay until you got back so I could tell you but maybe that wasn't a good idea, and wow I'm rambling like you now."

"Honestly, I was wondering how you could leave your family again. Especially now that your dad knows, so it's kinda nice to know that you didn't." Felicity finally started moving again and put her bag and keys in their normal spots before heading over to her computer. Sara, not really knowing what to do, just followed her.

"If I knew that they would be absolutely safe if I left, I would never set foot in this town again for their sakes, but for now, I feel that they really won't be safe either way." Sara said seriously and Felicity just nodded before typing some things into her computer.

"I can get you set up at any hotel or motel, given that it actually has electronic check ins, that you want. I can give them a completely different identity that can be linked to a predetermined background should for some reason someone try to run a background check on your identity…" Felicity trailed off and bit her bottom lip as a thought occurred to her.

"Is that a 'but' I'm sensing or…?" Sara asked a little warily. If Oliver trusted this woman then she was obviously a good person but in the short time she has known her, she has proven to be very unexpected so she wasn't exactly sure what was going to come out of her mouth next.

"Well, I can do all that but you would still have to hide as you go in and out of the room, plus you would have to hide all your leathery stuff from the house keepers because you can keep them out for a while but eventually someone will end up barging in. Trust me, I know from experience. At least I didn't have anything to hide other than all the clothes I had left all over the floor though," Felicity knew she was getting off track and paused for a second, "Anyway, my point is, and you totally don't have to do this, I will still book the hotel for you if you want but it might be easier if you just stay here? I have a spare bedroom, even though it's currently just being used as an office slash storage space but with two of us? We could clean that out pretty quick but again, it's totally up to you. At least you wouldn't have to hide anything while you are here since I already know, and no housekeepers would be barging in. My family lives far out of town and hardly ever comes by and never without giving me lots of notice first and the only other person who sometimes barges in is Oliver so you'd be safe here."

Felicity leaned back in her desk chair after she had finished and let Sara think about all that she had said. After a moment or two of silence, she spun around to check her emails and see what she had missed at the office while they were gone and after answering a few emails, Sara spoke up.

"I don't want Ollie to know I'm still in town."

"I won't lie to him. No matter what. I'll have to tell him, but if you don't want to see him, I can try my best to get him to leave you alone. But that's all I can do," This time it was Felicity's turn to get serious and Sara smiled, she could live with that.

"Okay, I'll stay. Thank you."

"You're welcome," Felicity said with a smile and hopped up out of her chair, "let's go see what we can do with that spare bedroom. I know there is a bed in there. Somewhere. I just kept piling stuff on it though."

Sara gave a small laugh and followed Felicity towards the guest bedroom, but as they crossed the hall that lead to the front door, Felicity had a thought.

"Hey, Sara? The keypad to the security system by the front door didn't seem to be working and come to think of it I should have gotten an alert when you got into my apartment, Russia or not…" she trailed off and looked at Sara who looked at the keypad guiltily.

"I, uh had to turn it off when I came in."

"You can't just turn a security system off. It just doesn't work like that. Even if you disarmed it it should still be working to some extent."

"By off I meant I had to completely smash it. Whatever hellish program you put in there, because I swear to god that is not a normal security system, would not stop to matter how many times I tried to get rid of it until I finally had to smash it before it alerted all your neighbors and the entire police squad came down on me."

"Smash it? You…smashed… it? My beautiful complicated and genius security system? Smashed?"

* * *

It would take a little while but eventually they got used to each other and ended up being great friends and roommates but it was a very, very long while before Felicity allowed Sara anywhere near anything electronic.

Sara still hadn't told her entire family she was back yet but she was glad to have found a friend in Felicity. It had been a long time since she had someone who was just her friend because they wanted to be, not because she would be useful to them so being around Felicity was a nice change.

Now if she could just get her to stop calling her "Smashy".


	4. Chapter 4

**Just a short little something that popped into my head.**

* * *

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Swing.

Clang.

The bar moved up to the next rung on the salmon ladder and Oliver took a breath to start the cycle over again when he started to hear voices heading out of the back room.

"-there is no way this is going to work, Sara. Absolutely not."

"Relax, it will be fine. I just need you to show up for a few minutes so that Laurel will stop thinking that I'm Black Canary."

Oliver quickly flipped around so that the bar was under his knees so he could do crunches and see what the two female members of team arrow were up to without it being too obvious.

"But I'm going to end up tripping over my own feet in this get up and shes going to know. I'll probably end up cracking my head against something or snapping my neck and it will be all your fault for making me do this. This is absolutely not a good idea."

"Look, you've already got the outfit on so just put on the mask and let's go get this over with, okay?"

They finally came into Oliver's line of sight and his eyes traveled over to Sara who was dressed in normal street clothes and then…

Then his eyes were drawn to the woman next to her who could only be Felicity but she was wearing Black Canary's outfit.

Black Canary's leather outfit.

Tight, black leather outfit.

On Felicity.

Felicity jumped and Sara reached for the nearest weapon she could find as a loud clang and crash came from the salmon ladder.

"Oliver? Are you okay?" Once Felicity realized that he was the source of the crash she rushed over to where he lay underneath the ladder.

He sat up and rubbed his head, "I'm fine… What are you… Why?" he turned to her but then quickly turned to look at Sara instead.

He was used to seeing Sara in the outfit, but Felicity in it? That was a whole new and very unexpected thing.

"Laurel is pretty suspicious after the whole Huntress thing earlier so Felicity here is going to help me by playing Canary for a little bit."

"And you think that's a good idea?" he said and Felicity quickly stood up and looked at Sara.

"See? Even he doesn't think it's a good idea. I'm just going to go change and then we can think of something-" Felicity didn't even get a chance to take a step before Sara grabbed her arm and started dragging her towards the door.

"We are going. Bye, guys!" Sara called out as she dragged Felicity through the doorway while Oliver continued to stay on the floor until Diggle came over to make sure he really didn't knock something loose when he fell.

"You okay there?" Diggle extended a hand to Oliver and Oliver finally snapped out of it, taking his hand and pulling himself up before getting back on the ladder.

It was going to be a long, long time before he was going to be able to look at Felicity the same way again.

* * *

**I'm sorry, I just absolutely love Oliver falling off the ladder. **


	5. Chapter 5

It was an accident.

A really unfortunate, terrible, and traumatic accident, but still an accident.

Felicity was in the middle of doing a huge clean out of the foundry computers so when Diggle asked her to find something online for him she just grabbed her tablet. It took her about ten seconds to find what he wanted then she walked over to the far side of the mat where he was watching Oliver and Sara spar to show him.

She held out her precious tablet to him with both hands, giving him a look that clearly said that he better be careful with it, or else.

Diggle reached out to gently take it from her knowing how paranoid she could be about her tablet, slightly in awe that she was actually letting him touch it, when 'it' happened.

Oliver had been in a particularly grouchy mood all day and no one knew why but eventually Sara and Diggle had offered to spar with him to try to get in a better mood.

Except, Sara was doing nothing but pushing all the wrong Oliver buttons, so to speak and finally she pissed him off enough that when she darted forward to attack him, he flipped her over his body and sent her flying a little bit harder than he should have.

Okay, a lot harder than he should have.

He watched in muted horror as she flew straight towards Felicity and Diggle who weren't even paying attention to them. He couldn't even make a sound of warning before Sara crashed straight into them and though she managed not to hit either of them too hard, Felicity's tablet flew into the air.

If you asked Oliver, he would say that what happened next was absolutely impossible, but yet it happened.

The tablet flew up and over and came crashing down hard right on top of his nicely displayed arrows.

Right on top of the very, very sharp point of his arrows.

Which were now sticking out of the middle of the tablet as it sparked and sizzled.

Maybe displaying them pointing up like that without a case wasn't actually a good idea after all.

A deadly silence fell upon them as they all just stared at the smoking piece of technology until finally Felicity snapped out of her shock. The sound that came out of Felicity's mouth was not something that could be explained but if he had to try he would have used words like 'despair' and 'agony'.

She rushed over and gently picked it up and brought it to her desk where she sat down and just stared at it.

She was good, but she wasn't that good. She might be able to get some of her information off it but there was no hope for the tablet itself.

Her precious.

Her baby.

Her_ life_.

Gone.

Behind her, the three of them looked at each other and silently decided to give her some space. Sara went to shower and Diggle headed home since they didn't have any vigilante activities tonight.

Oliver hung back for a moment and very, very nearly made a crack about how she now had a "Smoaking Tablet" but then he thought better of it.

Felicity may not be a good shot with a bow - not for lack of trying though- but he was pretty sure he would end up with that arrow sticking out of some part of him if he opened his mouth right now.

Sara finished her shower and headed out for her dinner date with Laurel while Felicity was still sitting there.

It was his fault and he knew it. He shouldn't have let Sara get to him and he definitely shouldn't have been so rough.

He was just lucky no one got hurt. Besides the tablet.

He would just have to buy her another one and hope she forgave him at some point in their lifetimes.

* * *

Eventually Felicity decided she had mourned her beloved tablet enough and stood up from her chair. Her stiff muscles told her she had been sitting there for a while and when she looked at the clock she found it had been hours since the 'accident'.

She was going to have a lot of work ahead of her to retrieve her data and she decided she was going to need a nice hot shower, in her own apartment, before she even started.

What she didn't know was that Oliver had left a little present waiting for her when she got back to her apartment.

With Felicity, Oliver never knew what to expect so she was either going to love it, or she was going to chuck it at his head the next time she saw him.

Either way, at least he tried.

Although, changing the background before he gave it to her was probably a little much.

* * *

The next night found Diggle hesitating outside the entrance to the foundry.

He was just a little afraid of what he would find in there.

Felicity was a wonderful person but she has also threatened them all in great detail about how exactly she could ruin their lives if she felt the need.

Diggle knew he wasn't guilty, it wasn't his fault, but he was deeply afraid for Oliver's sake. He had driven him to work this morning but hadn't seen him since.

He finally entered the code for the door and headed down the stairs and was shocked by what he saw.

Felicity was sitting at her desk, happily humming along to whatever song was flowing through her ear buds while Oliver sat off to the side looking very pleased with himself.

As he moved closer his attention was drawn to Felicity's desk where he noticed a new tablet sitting there.

It looked like a much newer, high tech version of the one she had.

The keyboard case was also no longer red like the last one.

This one was a dark green. Arrow green.

And was that a picture of an arrow for the background screen?

Diggle shook his head and walked over to Oliver.

"Real subtle. She's going to use that against you one of these days you know. One way or another."

"I am well aware."


	6. Chapter 6

"Someone from my Bratva connections found out some information on Demarcus, but we've got to move fast," Oliver rushed down the stairs to the lair while talking but stopped when his eyes fell on the case that should be holding his Arrow suit. "um,where's my suit?"

Sara turned from where she was watching the security feed on Felicity's computer to look at Diggle who just looked at Oliver.

"Felicity isn't here, she's spending time with her family this weekend, remember?" Diggle said, and Oliver just stared at him with an 'and?' expression.

"So, your suit? Probably still in the middle of the bathroom floor where you left it last time you suited up."

"But…"

Sara looked at him incredulously, "what? Did you think that your suit just magically appeared sewed up and blood free after each time you go out?"

"No, I just…" Yes, yes he did. Or rather, he never really gave it much thought. He wasn't even sure how he fixed and kept his suit clean before Felicity joined the team.

"If it's just been sitting there with all that dried blood on it you are going to have one hell of a mess to clean so if you want to go after this guy? Better get started. There's a washing machine in the back… Does the great Oliver Queen even know how to use a washing machine?" Diggle smirked as Oliver huffed at them and headed to bathroom at the back.

When he pushed the door open he was immediately assaulted by the overwhelming smell of dried blood. He hadn't killed anyone last time but as he was trying to get information out of one guy, the guy's boss had shot him while Oliver had still be holding on to him. It wasn't pretty.

There was no way he was going to be able to wear it tonight.

Gently, he picked up the pile that was his leather suit and headed back out of the bathroom and down the hall a little ways to a laundry room that he now vaguely remembered agreeing to put in.

Once inside the small room, he was about to chuck it into the washer and hope for the best when he noticed a decent sized storage container on a table in the corner with a letter attached to it.

Dear Oliver,

One of these days you are going to realize that your suit doesn't magically wash itself- and just so we are clear, I only do this for you because let's face it, if it was left up to you to remember to clean it? We wouldn't catch half the bad guys we do because half the time we'd have to wait for you to go wash your suit.- so when that day comes, hopefully you will be reading this instead of shoving your suit in the washer because that is so not going to work out well for you.

What you actually need to do is put your suit in this container then use the hose that is connected to the sink to fill it with hot water- oh and make sure the plug at the bottom of the container is plugged so it doesn't immediately run back out- and once it's full of water, put one scoop (three scoops if it has been sitting for days with dried blood) of the powder on the shelf labeled "Felicity's Magic Suit Cleaning Powder" in the water and stir it around a little bit with the stick next to the container.

Now here's the hard part.

You are going to have to let it soak for at least an hour or two. I know this is going to be hard for you but it won't work otherwise.

After it's done soaking- are you absolutely sure it's done? That it has been at least an hour?- then you can put it in the washer on a normal cycle. Lucky for you, you let me get a fancy washer that already has the laundry soap and softener preloaded into it. Don't forget to unplug the storage container so the nasty water can go down the drain too. Now push start and walk away. Go climb the salmon ladder or something and don't you dare touch this machine until it's done.

It will let you know when it's done.

Then you can put it in the dryer and go back to the salmon later and when the dryer is done? You can finally go kick some bad guy ass.

By the way, now that you have realized that magical leather fairies don't clean your suit could you at least put it in the container so it can be soaking instead of just leaving it on the floor from now on?

Thanks,

Felicity

P.S. Seriously, don't mess with the washer while it's going. If you mess it up, you are going to be stuck with a half clean soaking wet suit unless you can convince Diggle or Sara to come see what you've managed to mess up. And no, the dryer will not dry a soaking wet suit. Do. Not. Try. It.

Oliver was smiling by the end of the letter and then carefully did what she told him to about soaking the suit. She knew him pretty well but, really? How could he mess up the washer? It wasn't that complicated. He may have spent five years relatively technology free on the island but he was pretty sure he would be able to handle a washing machine, she really should have more faith in him.

* * *

A little over an hour later Diggle and Sara where in the middle of a work out when Oliver came out of the laundry room with a defeated look while mumbling something.

"What was that? Couldn't hear you?"

"I think I broke the washing machine."


	7. Vigilante Club 1

**This takes place after 2X13 but before Slade shows himself to Oliver.**

* * *

Sara walked down the stairs into the lair, grabbing a chair and swinging it over to Felicity's desk before plopping down on it and resting her head on the corner of the desk.

Felicity quickly glanced at the woman who was suddenly in her space but she didn't seem to be bleeding or generally in danger of dying so she went back to breaking into their latest bad guy's security system. It was the most complicated system she had encountered yet, and if she wasn't the one who had to break into it, she would be admiring the work put into it.

She only had about thirty minutes left before the system completely wiped itself clean so while she was curious about why Sara was there, as long as Sara stayed quiet she could stay there until she was done.

Oliver and Diggle had already been sent upstairs to the club because they couldn't manage to stay quiet and let her work, even after she had put in her headphones to drown them out.

Fifteen minutes later, she was just about to break through when Sara started talking.

"Dad wants to come over and have dinner at my place in a few hours since Laurel is busy and his place is a mess."

Fingers still flying over the keyboard she replied, "That's nice. Some Lance family bonding time."

Sara raised her head up from where it was still resting on the desk and just gave Felicity a funny look.

"Yeah, I guess I'll just bring him down here to the Arrow Cave and we can set up a nice little dining table over in the corner. Ollie still won't let us put a kitchen down here but I guess we could microwave some take-out or something."

Felicity nodded her head a few times and then her fingers stopped typing as she realized what Sara meant.

"Oh… Oh! Right, that is a problem isn't it? Maybe it's time to start looking for a place instead of living down here?" Thirteen minutes left, her fingers started flying again. She was almost there.

"I've thought about it but I don't want to leave Ollie. Staying together down here is one thing, but sharing an apartment together? That's how we ended up on that boat in the first place," Sara let her head fall back on the desk with a groan, "I don't know what to do. He knows I'm not staying in the clock tower anymore and I can't tell him I'm staying at the Arrow's lair because he knows I'm with Ollie so that would be weird and he might start thinking Ollie is Arrow again."

"I...just-just hush for a minute, okay? I am so close to breaking through. Just two minutes, please, just two minutes."

True to her word, two minutes later Felicity was fist pumping the air then turned to give her attention to Sara. Now that she was into the system, it would just take a few clicks to get whatever information Oliver wants later.

"You can't just go to the Big Belly Burger or something?"

"Eating at a restaurant is not, according to my father, a true family bonding time because you are surrounded by strangers."

"Okay…," Felicity trailed off but then had a thought, "my apartment has two bedrooms because a friend of mine was supposed to move in with me when I got the place but then she ended up meeting a guy and moving out to where his family lives and I really didn't need two bedrooms but then I started working at Queen Consolidated making a pretty decent check each month that I decided paying for the extra room was much easier than moving all my stuff again to a new place. Anyway, my point is, why don't you tell Detective Lance that you are staying with me? To him, I know you from working with Arrow and working for Oliver so it shouldn't seem too strange to him. That way you can use my place tonight."

Sara thought about it for a minute, "Okay, that's a good plan but what about you? I know you were planning to go home later because Ollie isn't going after anyone tonight. I don't want to keep you out of your own home."

"It's okay, there is always plenty to do around here until you guys are done."

"Hmm, why don't you join us?"

"What happened to 'true family bonding time'? I'm not exactly family."

"You practically are, he's very fond of you. Come on, it will be fun."

"No, I'm pretty sure it won't."

But it didn't matter since Sara was already handing Felicity her bag and tablet and pushing her towards the stairs.

* * *

After a slightly awkward start when Quentin was very surprised to see Felicity there, and Sara trying to explain that Felicity was kind enough to let her stay here until she found her own place, things were going pretty well.

They had spent quite a bit of time making the apartment look like Sara lived there, he was formerly a detective so the less questions that could lead him back to Arrow's identity the better, so they decided a simple but delicious lasagna would be good for dinner.

Quentin was on his second helping of lasagna and they were talking about various things and having a

much better time than Felicity thought they would have when Quentin, as casual as he could be, said something that shocked both women.

"Everyone here knows who the vigilante is so you two can stop trying to pretend Oliver isn't Arrow."

Felicity, unfortunately, was taking a sip of her water when he spoke and ended up choking on it but thankfully Sara came to the rescue.

"Dad! Really? From what I've heard you already accused Oliver of this once before, and that didn't really work out for you, did it?"

"No, it didn't. But I had some solid evidence at the time and I've been around him now and god help me, I've even, in a way, become an accomplice to him. At least in the eyes of the law and I like to think I've been around him enough to know. Plus, you two both disappear and then Oliver comes back at the same time Arrow shows up and then you come back and you are the other vigilante it's not that hard to figure out, Sara."

"Dad…"

"Look, I'm not going to rat him out or anything. God knows I don't like that kid but he is doing some good now. I just don't want there to be any more big secrets between us anymore, kiddo."

Finally, Felicity was able to stop choking on the water she had inhaled and spoke up, "Sara, it's okay. I think it's about time he knows, don't you?"

Sara's head whipped around to look at Felicity so fast she was surprised her neck didn't just snap.

"What are you doing?" Sara practically hissed at her but Felicity just smiled and turned to Quentin.

"Oliver Queen is not Arrow," he tried to interrupt but Felicity held out a hand to shush him, "but he is...involved. In a way. Sometimes we need things or equipment that isn't cheap to take out the bad guys and Oliver helps us with that. He is our money man, basically, our financial support. We wouldn't be able to do this without him, it's not like Arrow gets paid for what he does."

Sara relaxed a little bit but Quentin was still confused, "But if Oliver isn't Arrow, then who is?"

"I hope you don't expect me to actually give you a name, Officer Lance, but I will tell you that Oliver didn't come back from the island alone. Someone else came with him and that person is Arrow."

Quentin looked a little disappointed and confused that he wasn't right but accepted it and before long their meal was over and he was heading out the door after saying goodbye to each of them.

Once Sara pushed the door shut and locked it, she whirled around to face Felicity.

"What was that about?"

"Sorry, it was a cover story Oliver and I came up with in case someone got too close. We were going to let you know last time you were in town but then you left and now that you are back I honestly kind of forgot. I'm sorry."

"You scared the shit out of me. I thought you were going to tell him! I was seriously considering stabbing you with my fork to get you to shut up."

"At least it wasn't the butter knife, I guess."

* * *

A week later, Sara headed into the lair and stopped right in front of Felicity's desk, trying to wait until she was done but couldn't keep her foot from tapping impatiently.

"Yes?"

"My dad wants to, in his words, have a 'Vigilante Club Dinner Meeting' tonight. He says he has information we might want."

"This is so not a good idea."

And thus, the 'Vigilante Club' started having weekly dinner meetings.


	8. Vigilante Club 2

**Continuation of the previous chapter since a couple people asked so nicely.**

**(I am seriously open to ideas here. If you want more of a chapter I've already done or if you have an idea you want me to do or anything. Even if your idea is that you want to see Felicity and Oliver baking cookies. Just, anything. I love writing these but I'm getting low on ideas since the show itself has been pretty dramatic lately.)**

* * *

Oliver had been itching to get out and do some vigilante work all day so the moment it got dark, he headed out to the latest bad guy's house. Within ten minutes, the guy was already turning himself in after just very little threatening.

As soon as the police showed up to take the guy in, Sara had headed back to the lair in a hurry but Oliver didn't really give it much thought, she hated to be around police.

Oliver headed back to the lair since there really wasn't much else he could do, he thought the guy would have put up more of a fight. They were looking into another guy on the list but didn't have enough on him to go after him yet but maybe he could go out patrolling later when all the low-lifes were out. It wasn't even eight yet, too early in the night for most bad guys.

So back to the lair it was.

When he got back to the lair he was very surprised to see that Diggle was the only one there. Sara should have made it back way before him and Felicity should have still been there.

"Where is everyone? Sara left before me, she should have made it back by now."

"She did, and then she changed and left again. Something about dinner with her father."

Oh, he did remember her saying something about that now. "And Felicity?"

"Dunno, just said she was heading home."

Diggle didn't seem too concerned but Oliver was suspicious. Felicity told them all, repeatedly, that she does have a life outside of Queen Consolidated and Arrow business but most of the time he had to personally escort her out the door at the end of the day. She always had just one more thing to do on her computer and now she's gone before he even gets back from a mission? Odd.

"Where are you going?" Diggle called out as Oliver spun on his heel and headed back up the stairs.

"I'm going to do a little...patrolling."

* * *

He really shouldn't be doing this but he was curious. What if she wasn't feeling well? Was she getting sick from working too much? Was something bothering her? Was someone threatening her?

Okay, so maybe he was getting a little dramatic there but he couldn't help it, he was worried.

Which is why he was sneaking in her bedroom window because her GPS tracker said she was in her apartment.

His feet had just touched the carpet of her bedroom when he heard a shriek coming from the living room.

So, of course, he rushed in.

When he had been climbing in through the window it had occurred to him that he could have just knocked and came in the front door but he was still in his vigilante outfit so he decided it would be better to sneak in.

But now that he had just rushed out of Felicity's bedroom to see Quentin Lance staring at him from the other side of the dining room table he wasn't quite sure if showing up out of her bedroom as the vigilante or showing up at her house as Oliver would have been better.

Felicity- who was absolutely fine other than a nice new wine stain on her shirt which was apparently worth shrieking over- looked between Oliver and Quentin and then looked at Sara who had just come out of the kitchen carrying a dish of something that smelled amazing.

They all just looked at each other silently as it slowly started making sense to Oliver. Even back before the island Quentin had always insisted on not going out to eat, something that Oliver never really understood but went along with it to make Laurel happy. After the island- and all the vigilante stuff- he could see where a home cooked meal with people you trusted meant a lot more than even the fanciest of restaurant food. And Felicity was, well Felicity and probably offered to let her use her apartment since Sara was still technically living under the club.

Finally, Quentin had had enough of the silence and spoke up, "Well, don't just stand there. Have a seat. I promise no handcuffs are going to magically appear on your wrists if you sit. Not like it would hold you anyway."

Oliver looked at Felicity who just gave him an 'I-don't-even-know-what-to-tell-you' look and started pulling the wet shirt gently away from her body while wrinkling her nose. She brushed past him and headed into her bedroom to change her shirt so Oliver looked at Sara who had moved forward to place the dish on the table but she offered him no help at all.

Oliver flipped the voice changer on, "I don't think that's a good idea, Officer."

"I think it is. I'm already apart of this vigilante club so I might as well get to have dinner and a chat with its founding member, right?"

"Vigilante...club? There is no such thing and unless there is something you are hiding, you are not a vigilante."

"No, me and Ms. Smoak here? We aren't like you two, but in the eyes of the law? We help you and that kinda makes us just as bad so here we all are in the vigilante club. We meet weekly."

Oliver knew he was right but that didn't make this…'club' any better.

"You might as well at least eat, I know you haven't had dinner yet," Felicity said as she came back out of her bedroom with a fresh shirt on.

"This is a bad idea," he told her.

"It wouldn't be our first. At least this one involves food," Felicity just stared him in the eyes and he stared back for a minute before finally sighing and taking a seat across the table and diagonal from Quentin. It was a better angle for his hood to hide his face.

That put him sitting next to Felicity on one side of the table while Sara sat opposite of him next to her father which was a good thing since he had to discreetly kick her foot under the table when she wouldn't stop giggling. Apparently the idea of Arrow having dinner with her father was cracking her up.

Surprisingly, the dinner was going pretty well. Quentin had some pretty useful information about a drug lord that was connected to someone on the list and Oliver actually found himself relaxing a little bit even though Quentin kept trying to get him to turn off the voice changer, claiming that it sounded too much like a ghostly robot.

They were all almost done with their food when Quentin suddenly had a question that had been bugging him since Arrow had shown up from the bedroom.

"So…" he said, gesturing across the table at Oliver and Felicity, "are the two of you together? I mean, you did come out of her bedroom and-" Quentin was cut off as Felicity started choking on her drink again and Sara started laughing in earnest.

Oliver was shocked for a second, that was definitely not what he was expecting to hear, then quickly started assuring Quentin that no, they were not together.

Meanwhile, Felicity was coming to the conclusion that she just needed to stop drinking anything when they had these dinner meetings, it was turning out to be dangerous for her health.


	9. Chapter 9

"This is not a good idea, Oliver. In fact, this is a really, really bad idea." Felicity's fingers fidgeted with the hem of her sundress as she sat in the passenger seat of a very nice car.

"You are probably right, but there was no way I was doing this on my own. Just pretend it's a normal mission," Oliver used the turn signal and pulled off the highway onto an exit ramp and Felicity knew they were getting close to their destination.

"A normal mission doesn't involve your mom. Well, usually. When she isn't shooting at you. Which she could totally do again or well no, it's more likely she will be shooting at me. I'm not her favorite person, remember?"

"Relax, she's not going to shoot you," he paused, "probably."

Felicity groaned and tried to relax since she knew they only had a few minutes of peace left until they got to the beach house.

Thea was still convinced that something was wrong between Oliver and Moira so she had the bright idea to talk them into having a little family get together at the Queen family beach house.

Oliver had tried to politely refuse but Thea was having absolutely none of that.

_"It will be fun, just mom, you, and me. Well, and Roy, of course," she said and it instantly gave Oliver an idea._

_He told them he would only go if Sara could come and Thea couldn't exactly say no since Roy was coming._

_And then Oliver remembered Diggle jokingly asking when vacation was a few weeks ago._

_"Hey, you don't mind if I invite some more friends, right?"_

_"You are not turning this into one of your infamous parties, Ollie. This is supposed to be a family thing," Thea said with her hands on her hips and looked to her mom for back up but Moira wasn't exactly thrilled about this either and decided to stay out of it._

_"No, not like that. Just close friends, I promise. Just three people. Well, plus two more if Sara can convince Laurel and her dad to come. You should invite that girl you and Harper were friends with, Sin, wasn't it?"_

_"Let me get this straight, you want Sara's father to come spend the weekend with us? Don't you guys, like, hate each other or something? He did try to arrest you for being the vigilante."_

_"I like to think we've come to an understanding of sorts." And he hoped that his mother would be a little less likely to pull something with him around. Hopefully. He just wasn't sure anymore. It was like he didn't even know who she was as a person now so he had no idea what she might do or say._

_"Riiiiiiight," Thea said, but agreed on letting him bring friends because knowing Oliver, he would have just brought them anyway. Plus, she was curious to see who her brother thought of as 'close friends'._

So here they were, driving up to the beach house and Felicity was wondering if Oliver even knew what the definition of a vacation was because she was pretty sure this was not going to be relaxing or fun.

Roy and Sin had gone up to the house early to make sure everything was prepared with Moira and Thea. Sara was coming up with Laurel and her father but they had to wait until Officer Lance finished his shift before they could go and Diggle was coming up with Lyla which left Felicity to ride with Oliver.

Not that she minded- after, of course convincing him that yes, they actually had luggage to bring, no it wouldn't fit on the motorcycle so yes, they actually had to take a car- she was just pretty sure she wasn't going to make it through this weekend without completely embarrassing herself. She just hoped she didn't take Oliver down with her when it happened.

All too soon they were pulling up at the house and even though it wasn't as big as the Queen mansion, it was still pretty big.

"Felicity, relax. Seriously," Oliver said as he climbed out of the car and grabbed both their bags from the trunk.

She had stepped out of the car and was about to protest that she could carry her own bag when Thea came bursting out of the front doors already wearing a swimsuit and ran down the steps to hug Oliver. She stepped back and looked at Felicity then looked back at Oliver with a raised eyebrow.

"Isn't she your assistant, Ollie?"

"Yes, she is and she has a name, Felicity Smoak," Felicity said, mildly irritated at being just an 'assistant to the great Oliver Queen' once again.

"Thea, be nice. I meant it when I said closest friends. Felicity is one of them."

Thea looked between both of them for a minute then spun around and headed up the steps to the front door, "Mom and Roy are out back. We figured we would just enjoy the beach until everyone gets here then BBQ for dinner. Mom and I have our normal rooms so everyone else can just pick which ever room they want as they arrive. I will give you a word of warning though, I know Roy snuck in a bag of water balloons and he took off as soon as we heard the car pull up so you might want to change into your bathing suits."

Thea talked as they walked into the house and stopped when they got into the lobby, she turned to head out the patio doors when Oliver had a thought.

"And exactly which room is Roy going to be staying in?"

Not even missing a beat, Thea turned back around and gave Oliver the biggest smile she could, "In the room furthest away from mine, of course."

And then she was gone out the doors before he could tell her he knew, without a doubt, that was a lie.

"Come on, bedrooms are on the second floor," Oliver said, gesturing towards the staircase on the side of the lobby. Once upstairs, he pointed out which rooms were already taken and then handed her her bag and let her pick a room.

Moira's room was at one end of the hall and Oliver's was at the other so of course she decided to pick the room that was as far away from Moira's as possible which, unless she wanted to be neighbors with Thea, was the one right next to Oliver's room.

The room looked exactly like you would picture a guest room in a beach house would look like. It was done in shades of tan and light blue with various shell decorations around. It was very pretty but as Felicity placed her bag on the bed and started looking for her swimming suit, she remembered the other reason she didn't want to do this.

* * *

Oliver finished getting dressed before she did but he wasn't going out there alone so he just leaned against the wall next to her door and waited. He didn't have to wait long but when she came out wearing a black terry cloth cover up she had a not so faint blush on her face that only got worse when she saw him standing there.

"Okay, look. You can't laugh. In fact, it would be better if you just didn't say anything because I bought this years ago way before I met you and it's not like I actually get to go to the beach much so I'd kinda forgotten what it looked like until I had to dig it out of my closet yesterday when you said we were going on this vacation and I didn't have time to go buy another one and-"

"Felicity, what are you talking about?" He cut her off and she just bit her lip before lifting the cover up up over her head, revealing her bikini.

It was a modest type with thick straps that looked very good on her but what really caught his attention was the color of it.

It had a color block pattern made out of black and green.

Hood green.

Felicity lowered the cover up back into place, her face bright red now and he just couldn't resist.

"I'm pretty sure Thea probably has some sort of arrow charm or pendant you could attach to it to complete the look. Maybe I should put some sort of lock on the case for my suit, you might be wearing my hood next."

With a loud groan, Felicity threw her hands in the air and headed down the stairs. She had a feeling she wasn't going to live this one down anytime soon.

Especially from Sara.

She almost wished that Sara would get mad or jealous thinking that by wearing the hood colors she was trying to go after Oliver but instead she was pretty sure that Sara would find it hilarious.

Sometimes she didn't really understand the relationship that Oliver and Sara had but as long as her friends were happy, she would be happy.

And then she had a thought that stopped her in her tracks, almost causing Oliver to bump into her.

Officer Lance was going to see her and he had already voiced suspicions about the nature of her relationship with Arrow.

This was definitely a really, really bad idea. Maybe Moira would shoot her and put her out of her misery.


	10. Vigilante Club 3

**So who is ready for tonight's episode? Not me, that's for sure. I'm pretty sure this is going to be way more dramatic than I can handle especially if anyone other than Slade dies. **

* * *

"Is our hooded friend going to be joining us for dinner tonight?" Quentin asked as they headed to the table to sit down.

"Domestic stuff isn't really his style-" Felicity said but got cut off as someone rang the doorbell to her apartment. She looked to Sara who shook her head so if Sara didn't invite anyone else then who was at the door?

If it was Arrow, she was going to shoot him with his own arrows and push him back out the door. They were not going to have a repeat of last week.

Felicity walked over to her front door and put her eye up to the peep hole. She almost didn't open the door but knew if she didn't, he would either keep ringing the door bell or slip in through her bedroom again.

He wasn't in green so technically he wasn't Arrow this time.

"Oliver, what are you doing here?" She hissed at him as she opened the door.

"Nice to see you too," he smiled but she just continued to stare at him, "I brought wine, please let me in?"

She stepped aside and let him through the door then followed him to the table.

"Ollie, what are you doing here?" Sara jumped up and went to hug him a little tighter than necessary. He really shouldn't be there, especially after the hood being there last week. She didn't want to think of how her father would react if he knew who the hood was.

"I heard from a...friend of ours that a meeting was going on and I thought maybe I should come see what was going on."

Sara looked over Oliver's shoulder at Felicity and she nodded. If they somehow made it through this without Quentin finding out, they were going to have to have some serious words with Oliver about things that need to be done to keep secrets.

Sara let him go and Quentin stood up to greet him.

"Oliver Queen."

"Officer Lance."

Quentin just glared at him for a minute, just long enough for Felicity to get worried about what he was going to do then his face broke out into a smile and he offered Oliver a hand. "Welcome to the Vigilante Club, Mr. Queen."

After shaking hands, they all took their seats and it was all Felicity could do not to panic when they ended up sitting exactly like they did when Oliver was here as the Arrow last time.

She could see Quentin eyeing Oliver, probably wondering the same thing she was which was why was he not sitting next to Sara? He was across from her but still.

There was no way they were going to make it through this with his secret identity intact.

* * *

Somehow they made it through. Felicity even managed not to choke on her drink- only because she refused to drink anything even though she knew the wine Oliver had brought was probably the most amazing wine she'd ever get to taste. Maybe he would leave the rest of the bottle.

They had finished dinner long ago, now they were just sitting around talking. Felicity started telling them embarrassing stories from her preteen years and as much as Sara tried to get him not to tell them, Quentin had plenty of embarrassing stories to tell about Sara when she was little as well.

They tried to get Oliver to share some stories but he insisted that he was a perfect child and had no embarrassing stories to tell so of course, Felicity had to tell them about the horrible cover stories he tried to use on her when they first met. She kept mostly to the truth, just telling Quentin that Arrow had sent Oliver out to get information since at the time Oliver was the only one working with him.

She had already told Sara about the first time with the bullet hole laptop that he spilled coffee on but she hadn't told her the rest so when she got to the sports drink in a syringe, Sara and her dad were both nearly in tears from laughing so hard while Oliver just sat there in shame. His cover stories hadn't seemed that bad at the time but hearing Felicity tell them made him realize that yes, they really were that bad.

"Please tell me," Quentin said as he tried to get his breath back from laughing, "that you figured it out after that. It can't have gotten any worse than that."

"At that point I thought Oliver was Arrow but it wasn't like I could just ask him if he was or let him know that I knew, he might have put an arrow in me for all I knew. But then Arrow tried to talk to Moira Queen and she shot him and he ended up bleeding in the back of my car. He wouldn't let me take him to the hospital even though I was pretty sure there was more blood in my car than in him at that point and made me take him to his hideout where Diggle was. We got him patched up and then Oliver came in and I realized that they were two different people. We've been working together since."

"Wait a minute. Diggle? Isn't that the name of your driver bodyguard?" Quentin asked and Oliver explained how Diggle had gotten hurt trying to help Oliver help Arrow and Quentin mentioned Diggle should come by sometime too. It amazed Felicity how comfortable Quentin was inviting people over to a house that wasn't even her own. She didn't mind too much though.

"So do I get to know where this mysterious hideout is?" Quentin looked eagerly at them.

All three of them looked at each other and then back at Quentin and spoke in unison, "Absolutely not."

* * *

Quentin smiled to himself as he left the apartment. A year ago he wouldn't have believed that he would eventually be part of a vigilante club but now he trusted this group of people more than anyone in the police department. Too many co-workers have turned out to not be the people he thought they were.

Team Arrow might not use legal methods but at this point, they were doing more good for the city than the police.

He just wished they would give in and admit that Oliver was Arrow. But for now, he would play along and hope that maybe someday they would trust him enough to tell him.


	11. Chapter 11

**Takes place before Oliver knows Slade is back. Or you can just pretend Slade actually stayed dead. Either one works. **

* * *

"Sara, I swear to god if you don't sit still I'm going to put an arrow in you myself," Felicity exclaimed as Sara sat next to her, constantly fidgeting and moving around. It was driving her nuts.

"I can't! I'm supposed to be out there helping! Not stuck here doing nothing!"

Felicity looked pointedly at Sara's leg that was heavily bandaged, "Well you can't exactly do anything with your leg like that. You are just really lucky that bullet didn't hit a major nerve or something."

"If Thea dies because I messed up and let myself get hurt…"

It had started out as just a normal night at the club, Sara was working the bar and Thea was making sure everything was going smoothly when a group of masked people broke down the doors and stormed in. Sara, of course, reacted quickly and managed to take out two of the guys before what appeared to be the leader shot at her as she was trying to kick him in the head. He had obviously been aiming for her chest or head but since her leg was up there it blocked the shot.

She fell back near the bar and had grabbed a bottle to throw at them but they already had Thea and were out of the bar.

Seconds later, the rest of Team Arrow came out of the basement but it was too late.

So now, Oliver, Diggle, and Roy were out checking out all the possible leads they had while Sara was stuck in the lair with Felicity.

"It's not your fault, you did what you could," Felicity assured her but then her attention was drawn back to her computers as an alert popped up. She had plenty searches going to find Thea, but this was an alert for something she had set up a long time ago and had forgotten about.

Moira was calling someone on what Felicity had dubbed as her 'Secret Evil Phone'. It was the phone she used in the past to call Malcolm Merlyn and the other people involved in the Undertaking.

Unfortunately, she never did have an opportunity to put a bug in the phone so she could hear what they were saying.

Did Moira know something they didn't? It was probably worth checking out.

"Well, it looks like you have something to do now," Felicity said looking at Sara who just raised an eyebrow at her.

"Uh huh, let me just wheel my way over there and I will definitely check that out for you."

"No," Felicity stood up from her chair and pushed it out of the way before taking hold of Sara's chair and pushing her to be directly in front of her computers, "you do my job, and I'll do yours this time."

"Uh, you do remember the last time you went out in the field you got shot, right? And as I've heard, your previous attempts out in the field weren't much better."

"All I'm doing is going over to the Queen mansion to see who she is talking to. It's probably nothing anyway. I mean, everyone involve in the Undertaking is either dead or in jail so she's probably just using that phone because she can't find her other one. Or something. Who knows. I'll be back before you know it."

"Ollie is not going to like this…" Sara mumbled to herself as the door to the foundry shut behind Felicity.

* * *

Felicity made it over to the mansion in record time. If she was lucky, Moira would still be on the phone and she could just happen to overhear the conversation but if not, she would just have to cause a distraction so she could grab the phone.

She used Oliver's keys that he had left at the lair to let herself in the front door. The house was quiet but there was a light in a room down the hall that if she remembered right, was the kitchen.

As she got closer she could see Moira sitting at the kitchen island with her head in her hands and the phone next to her. Felicity was just about to carefully back away and decide what kind of distraction she could make to get her away from phone when a man stepped out of the shadows in the kitchen and she froze.

There was no way.

He was supposed to be dead!

"Moira," he said and Moira jumped up from her seat and stalked over to him.

"What have you done to her, Malcolm! Where is Thea?"

"I had nothing to do with this, I swear. But believe me when I say that I will find and I will take care of the people behind this. She's not just your daughter, Moira."

"I find that hard to believe since this happened not to long after you tried to threaten me into telling her."

"This wasn't me, Moira. I wouldn't kidnap my own daughter. I don't know who took her, but maybe Ms. Smoak over there does."

Malcolm tilted his head to indicate her position over Moira's shoulder and Moira spun around with a mixture of panic and hatred in her eyes.

Well, so much for hiding. Sara was right, being in the field never went well for her.

Felicity stepped into the room and ignored Moira in favor of looking straight at Malcolm, hoping to look at least a little intimidating. "We don't know yet but we are trying to find out. What I really want to know is how are you still alive?"

"You mean, how am I alive after your hooded friend stabbed me in the chest with an arrow and left me to bleed out?"

She ignored Moira's gasp and simply said, "Yes."

"If I told you, I'd have to kill you," he said, then grinned, "but I guess I have to kill you anyway so it doesn't matter much, now does it?"

Felicity blinked and then he was in front of her, arm up to bury a knife in her chest but she managed to jump back and take off running.

She was scared to death but the only thing she could think of was if she survived this, Oliver was likely never going to let her step out of the lair again. Ever.

She tried to head to the front door to get back to her car but he obviously knew this house better than she did and managed to cut her off so she turned and headed up the stairs instead, knocking anything she could reach behind her trying to slow him down.

At the top of the stairs sat a decent sized table holding some very pretty and probably expensive decorations and she stopped running long enough to push that down the stairs, smiling when it actually managed to knock him over.

Felicity could hear him stomping back up the stairs as she pushed open the door to Oliver's room and hurried over to pull out the thing she knew he kept under his bed just in case something like this happened. Although, she was pretty sure he hadn't imagined that it would be used on Malcolm Merlyn, since you know, he was supposed to dead.

She had just enough time to pull it out and get it ready before he rushed into the room now wielding a sword that he got from god knows where.

She didn't think, she just aimed and let go.

The arrow flew straight into his chest and although it sounded impressive, he was really only about three feet away so it would have been hard to miss.

He dropped his sword in shock- he probably didn't even stop to think that she might know how to shoot a bow, the element of surprise would be her greatest strength Sara always said- and Felicity took the chance to run past him back into the hallway with the bow and arrows still in hand.

She didn't stop running until she got back down the stairs where Moira was pacing in the lobby but stopped when she saw her. She looked mildly relieved that she was still alive but then noticed the bow and started glaring.

"So you are working for the vigilante now? Does my son know about this?"

Felicity, already running high on adrenaline, snapped at that.

"Yes I am and yes he does and do you know what? You have absolutely no room to talk considering that your lies killed five hundred and three people in the earthquake and killed your husband on that boat and left Oliver on that island for five years! Your lies also got your second husband kidnapped and you've got Oliver roped into your lie about Thea and now after all this you knew Malcolm Merlyn was alive and you lied about that too! How long have you known, Mrs. Queen? How long? Is he the reason the jury decided you weren't guilty? It was, wasn't it? And-" Felicity had plenty more to say but she heard a thump from upstairs and suddenly remembered that Malcolm was still up there and although he's probably pretty hurt, she had no illusions that she had actually managed to kill him.

She pushed past Moira and was about to head out the door but Moira spoke up, "If you tell him about this it will only hurt him."

"I will never lie to Oliver. No matter what. Even if he doesn't want to hear it or it will hurt him, I will not lie to him. He deserves that much after all the lies you have fed him over the years. Goodbye, Mrs. Queen."

And then she ran out to her car and started it with shaking hands, leaving Moira to deal with Malcolm.

She had gotten over to the mansion pretty fast but she managed to make it back to the lair even faster. Mostly due to the fact she was not going to feel safe until she was back in the presence of her highly muscled and skilled friends.

When she entered the lair she was surprised to see Oliver and Diggle both back. Oliver gave her the biggest smile and announced that they had found Thea safe and she was down at the police station filling out a report with Roy but even though she really wanted to be happy for Thea, she couldn't smile back because she knew she had some news he wasn't going to like.

"That's great but I have some bad news," Felicity said and told them about going to the mansion and finding out about malcolm.

Oliver, understandably, was not happy about the news but something didn't make sense to him.

"Felicity, how did you get away? You said they saw you and I don't think Malcolm wants it known that he is still alive."

"I kinda shot him."

"With a gun? I didn't know you carried one," Oliver said.

"With an arrow. Your spare one you told us you kept under your bed in case of someone breaking in," Oliver was just giving her a blank look so she supplied, "Sara has been teaching me some things. I'm not that good but he was only a couple feet away."

"It sounds like you were very lucky today, please don't go off on your own like that again. What if he had killed you?"

Felicity promised she wouldn't go out on her own again and then got to work trying to find anything she could about Malcolm online while the other three discussed what this meant now that he was back.

"Oh and, Felicity?" Oliver said a few minutes later, "No more practicing with Sara with a bow."

"But-" she started to protest, she actually enjoyed practicing and at least she could sort of take care of herself now.

"I will be teaching you how to shoot a bow and arrow from now on."


	12. Chapter 12

Slade had finally been taken care of- for sure this time- and things were finally getting back to normal for Team Arrow. Well, as normal as they could be anyway.

Isabel had survived the fight with Slade and after finding out why she was working for Slade, they ended up agreeing to leave her alone if she gave up on Queen Consolidated and left. She wasn't exactly happy at first but after showing her just how easily they could take her and her company down by exposing secrets, she agreed.

That, unfortunately, meant Oliver actually had to deal with all company related things. It had only been two days and he was already almost ready to ask her to come back, her connections to Slade be damned.

The only thing worse than Oliver having to do all that work was being the one that made sure that Oliver actually did everything he was supposed to so by the time Oliver and Felicity finished their work at Queen Consolidated, they were not exactly looking forward to a night of vigilante activities.

They walked into the lair and the lights were already on but neither of them thought much about it, assuming that either Diggle or Sara had made it there before them until they saw someone sitting in a chair in the middle of the lair.

"Thea?"

"Ollie!" Thea said, standing up from her chair and walking over to the end of the staircase. She looked confused for a second when she spotted Felicity standing behind him looking like she wasn't exactly sure what to do. "Oh, that makes a lot more sense, actually. That she's been working with you on this. Everyone just thought you were sleeping with her but that didn't really seem to fit."

Had they both not been still shocked that Thea was in the lair they wouldn't have let that slide but neither of them really knew what to do. Did they lie and try to say this was just another part of Queen Consolidated that was so super secret it had to be beneath the club? Although, that might be kind of hard since Thea had been sitting right next to the glass case with the suit in it.

In hindsight, maybe that hadn't been such a good idea after all. Generally, people didn't come down here that didn't already know though.

Oh.

"Did Slade…?" Felicity asked, causing Oliver to nearly jump out of his skin, he had forgotten she was still there.

"Yeah. He told me about this when he told me about my real father and although you have no idea how pissed I was at you, Ollie, I knew that if he was telling the truth you had enough to deal with without knowing that I knew so I just left it alone until now since I heard on the news that Slade Wilson mysteriously disappeared after a fight with the Hood."

Oliver closed his eyes and took a deep breath. There was no way he could convince her he wasn't the vigilante at this point but he really didn't want her to know. However, Slade had showed him recently that no matter what, everyone around him was already in danger so what did it matter at this point? Maybe she would let him or at least Sara train her so she could fight for herself a little bit next time someone decides to kidnap her.

But first, "How did you even get down here?"

"Oh, that was easy. You are here a lot for someone who is hardly ever actually out in the club and after he told me, things just started making sense. Like when Tommy nearly got in trouble with the police when they tried to inspect the building and Officer Lance found some room or something that wasn't on the blue prints. I tried to find that room when I took over the club while you were gone but never did until today."

"How did you know the code for the door though?"

"Roy kept mumbling about it one day a long time ago and when I asked, he told me some story about how it was for something for one of his friends and that he had to keep repeating it to himself to remember it because it was such a weird code."

Just then, the door opened behind them and Sara and Diggle walked in, nearly running into Felicity and Oliver who were still standing there.

"We brought dinner- what's the hold up? This landing isn't that big you know and these shakes are melting as we speak," Sara pushed past them and started down the stairs, "T-Thea? What…?"

"You too? And the bodyguard mom hired for you? Geez, who else is in on this?"

Oliver just shook his head and walked down the stairs, he didn't like this at all but if she was going to know, he was going to tell her everything.

No more secrets from the people that matter.

They were going to need a bigger lair.

* * *

Thea took everything pretty well. Oliver told her about the island, about what really happened and then about the book that Robert Queen had left him and becoming the vigilante. There were definitely some things she could have done without knowing but at this point, she was just grateful that someone was being honest with her.

"So where does Roy come into all this? I know he started working with you at some point."

"Well, that's a whole other story."

Roy probably wouldn't have wanted him to tell Thea about the mirakuru but he left and she deserved to know what she was getting into if she was going to be with him. They had no idea what he was up to after he left since they had been preoccupied with Slade but he probably wasn't up to any good.

After a while, everything was finally out in the open and Thea was just trying to process all the information she had been given today but there was one thing that she knew for sure.

"We need to find Roy. Please help me find him."


	13. Day Off 1

"-you are being ridiculous, Thea. I don't need my little sister trying to find friends for me, I have friends." Felicity heard as she walked down into the lair. It was supposed to be her day off from both Queen Consolidated and vigilante activities but here she was walking into the lair at ten in the morning because Oliver had called and said he needed her to find some information that just couldn't wait. She probably could have done it from the comfort of her home but as a general rule she tried not to use her home computer for illegal activities unless it was an emergency.

Oliver was sitting in her chair with his back to her and his feet on her desk. He was on the phone with Thea, apparently, but he must have heard her come in since it didn't startle him when she rushed from behind him and shoved his feet off her desk as hard as she could. Felicity only managed to make his feet move an inch or two- those amazing leg muscles of his were not going to move if he didn't want them to- but it got the message across and he took his feet down and jumped up from the chair.

"Of course, I have friends... Thea..." he said in an exasperated tone, "your concern for my social life is a little creepy."

He had hopped up onto the table next to Felicity's desk as she reclaimed her seat and she could barely hear Thea's voice saying something about lunch.

"No, I can't. I had plans already... No, Thea... I can't... Thea! She hung up on me." Oliver took his phone away from his ear and just looked at it for a minute, thinking, and then he looked up at Felicity.

"Oh no. Absolutely not, mister," Felicity said, shaking her hands out in front of her as if to keep him away even though he was still sitting on the table, "I am not going to have lunch with your sister, she scares me."

"Felicity, I need you to do this for me. Please. I'm not sure why she is suddenly concerned about my personal life but if I don't get this over with today she will never leave me alone. What if she starts snooping and finds out about Arrow?"

"Take Diggle or even better, take Sara."

"Thea was pretty clear that it couldn't be someone who works for me or someone that I had slept with."

Felicity gave him a pointed look, "I work for you."

"Yeah, but you were my friend before you started working for me."

"Technically I was already working for your company."

"Please don't make me go beg Officer Lance, he is my only other option."

"What happened to that information that you needed so badly that you had to call me in on my day off? I don't think I can find it in time for lunch." That was her last remaining hope of getting out of this.

"It can wait," he said, looking just a little bit guilty.

"Oh, so it can wait until we have lunch with your sister but it couldn't wait until after my day off? What exactly was it that you wanted me to find?"

"Okay, I lied. I'm sorry. I was hoping you would find out something about one of the names in the book so I would have something to do."

"So basically, you were bored."

"No," Felicity just looked at him, "Well, yes."

"I'm sure there is a nice sized stack of papers waiting on your desk at Queen Consolidated for you to work on."

"No thanks."

"Look, it's very rare that we actually get a day off so next time you are bored, don't call me in. If you are truly that bored, come over to my place and I will introduce you to my good friend Netflix, which is what I generally plan on doing on my days off."

"Deal. So, lunch?"

With a groan, she reluctantly agreed. She had been hoping that somehow he would have forgotten about that.

This was not how she had envisioned her day off going.


	14. Chapter 14

**I promise I am going back and continuing some of the previous chapters soon. It's just that continuing a chapter requires me to actually sit down and think about it whereas chapters like this just happen...**

* * *

Oliver had been pretty much forced and blackmailed by Moira into coming with her and Thea out of town to visit some sick relative that he vaguely remembered seeing once when he was a kid.

Oliver, understandably, was not thrilled to be doing this but since it meant Team Arrow got the night off, Felicity was pretty happy.

She was hoping to spend a nice relaxing evening at home, catching up on some of her favorite shows and maybe even taking a nice long bath but her hopes were shattered when Sara showed up at her door with a gleam in her eye and talked Felicity into going out for a girl's night of dancing and drinks.

Since she found out about Oliver's secret, Felicity generally made a point of not drinking in public since she was already known for rambling when she was sober. She would never forgive herself if she told someone his secret because she was drunk and couldn't shut her mouth.

But with Sara there she felt like it would be okay. She was certain that Sara would have no issues knocking her out if that's what it took to shut her up.

Plus, they were just going to go to Verdant. If they got too drunk they could always just go down to the lair and sleep it off.

So she agreed to go. After all, Sara's life hadn't exactly been normal in a long time, it would probably do her good to do something that normal people did.

* * *

The next morning, Felicity woke up to her mouth dry and head pounding before she had even opened her eyes. It took a little bit but she was able to open her eyes and look around.

There was a foot about two inches from her face but she was in her bed and she was still wearing her clothes from last night so that was a good sign at least.

Blinking a couple of times made her realize that she had left her contacts in all night and her eyes weren't happy. She never could get used to sleeping in them even though technically she had the kind she could sleep in.

She lifted her hand intending to rub at her eyes to hopefully help relieve some of the irritation but she ended up whacking the foot in front of her face instead.

The body attached to the foot jerked up but since it had been lying in such a weird position on the bed, the sudden movement caused the body to fall off the bed.

A groan came from the floor and Felicity slowly crawled over to the side of the bed and looked down at Sara who was now on the floor trying to shield her eyes from the sunlight coming through the windows.

"Remember," Felicity started, but immediately regretted it. Sound was definitely not their friend right now, "this was your idea."

Another groan was all she got.

Felicity stayed in bed for a while longer before finally willing herself out of bed and stumbled her way to the bathroom. She couldn't remember specific details from last night but from what she could remember it seemed like they both had a great time. It did them both some good to do something that didn't involve vigilantes.

Maybe next time they could get Oliver and Diggle to go. It would do them some good too.

From the amount of alcohol she could smell on her clothes, Felicity wasn't sure if she or her clothing had drank more last night.

Either way, she was definitely in need of a shower.

She took her contacts out first and put them in their container and then took off her clothes and put them in a far corner of the bathroom. She had a laundry hamper but they seriously smelled so strong she didn't want the smell contaminating her hamper.

Once her clothes were off she started the water running so it could be heating up and then turned back to the mirror and started trying to brush the mess that was her hair. It was frizzy and all tangled in the pony tail she had it in last night so if she didn't do something about it now there was no way she was going to be able to shampoo and condition it without making an even bigger mess.

As she worked on her hair she spotted a small dark bruise on her hip but didn't think too much of it since she was always bumping into things even when she wasn't drunk. She had just taken her contacts out so she couldn't see the bruise clearly but it was such a dark color and odd shape that once she had finished with her hair she decided to get a better look.

She could have gone to get her glasses and put them on but she wasn't entirely sure where she had left them last night before they left and it wasn't worth putting her contacts back in so she just moved so she could sit on the counter with the hip with the bruise facing the mirror so she could get close enough to the mirror to see.

And then she screamed.

* * *

It took all of five seconds for Sara to propel herself off the floor and rush into the bathroom prepared for the worst. It took a little longer, however, for her mind to actually catch up to her body and process the fact that Felicity was fine except for the fact she was sitting on the counter naked staring at the mirror in horror.

"What…?"

Felicity whirled around and hopped off the counter to stand in front of Sara. She had never been very shy about her body so it didn't bother her to be standing there naked. Plus there were more important things to deal with.

"Look!" she said, pointing at what she previously thought was a bruise on her hip.

Her 'bruise' was actually a newly done tattoo. A tattoo that was not there before she left her apartment last night.

A tattoo of a single green arrow.

Sara managed to make it back to the bedroom before she doubled over laughing- and clutching her head at the same time. Laughter is definitely not the cure for a hangover- and Felicity vowed to never, ever go drinking with Sara again.

Because this had to have been Sara's idea. Okay, well maybe the getting a tattoo part was her idea since she had been thinking of getting a new one for a while but a green arrow?

There is no way she would have picked that no matter how drunk she was. Especially, with Sara there.

It didn't matter now though because it was already done and now the only thing she could do was make sure that Oliver never found out.

* * *

The next day Sara was working out on the Salmon ladder and Felicity was practicing with the bow while they waited for Oliver to get back from his little trip.

With both Sara and Oliver's help she was actually getting pretty good at shooting it but she had to concentrate really hard to do it. She would probably never be able to shoot as quickly or on the move like they did but she enjoyed practicing anyway.

It wasn't long before Oliver walked in and Sara immediately dropped down and walked over to him.

"Hey, Ollie! Guess what Felicity got-"

Felicity turned towards Sara when she heard her name and accidentally let go of the arrow she had been about to shoot. It went flying towards Sara but ended up hitting a box about two feet to the left of her but Sara got the message.

"Uh, you know what, never mind. Forget I said anything."

Oliver, being the type of person he is, couldn't let it go though and spent the next few weeks bugging Felicity trying to get her to tell him but she kept her mouth shut.

A couple threats involving all the things she could do with technology kept Sara's mouth shut too.

He could never find out.

Ever.


	15. Chapter 15

**I appologize for the lack of updates, I know it's been a month since I updated but so much dramaticness has gone on in the series and I just really didn't have any happy ideas to write. I expect to write a lot more this summer however my lovely keyboard that I take to use with my tablet stopped working and I did a lot of my writing on that thing.**

**So I definitely haven't stopped this story, have no fear! I think there is a lot more Arrow fanfiction in my future. **

**SPOILERS FOR THE SEASON TWO FINALE IN THIS ONE.**

* * *

So much happened between the time Oliver caught Slade and Team Arrow arriving on the island but unfortunately for Felicity, sleep wasn't something that had happened in that time. Waller immediately had a team out to take Slade into custody and helpful or not, the rest of the Suicide Squad had to go back to their cells. Felicity worked with Sara and the rest of the League of Assassins to make absolutely sure all of Slade's men were taken care of and then made sure all the Assassins were rounded up and on their boat. After saying their goodbyes to Sara, Team Arrow headed back to the secondary lair to give Sara some time with her family and Felicity managed to get a quick shower and pull together a change of clothes out of the bag of clothes she had kept at the first lair. Thankfully Slade and his men didn't particularly care about their emergency clothes and they had been able to grab them last time they were there.

As soon as she got out of the shower at the new lair- she wasn't exactly sure what this building was supposed to be but at least it had a properly installed shower unlike the one they had rigged together in the old lair- Oliver was telling Diggle his plans to go make sure Slade made it to the island.

It wasn't like they were going to let him go alone after all they had been through so they grabbed a quick bite to eat and off they went.

One of the members of ARGUS that would be watching over Slade on the island was flying them in so Oliver and Diggle eagerly took the chance to get some sleep on the flight there.

Unfortunately, Felicity just couldn't sleep on the plane no matter how tired she was. Even on the way back when Oliver was flying, even though she completely trusted him not to crash the plane, she still couldn't sleep.

Diggle had told them about Lyla being pregnant on the flight back so when they touched down, Oliver insisted he should go and be with her and take some time off. They all needed it after what they had been through. As much as they wanted to help the city, there really wasn't much a penniless vigilante could do right now other than try and control the crime on the streets but the police force, after calling in some reinforcements from nearby cities, had that covered.

Oliver planned to take Felicity to her house, make sure it was all safe, and then spend some nice quiet Slade free time by himself at the new lair. It wasn't like he had anywhere else to go after all.

But then they pulled up at her apartment building.

Not just her building but the entire neighborhood had been hit and hit hard by looters taking advantage of the attack on the city.

As she stared up at her building, Felicity vaguely remembered getting an alert from her security system back when Slade's men started attacking but it really was the least of her worries at the time.

"I guess we should go see what's left?" she said with a sigh and stepped out of the car with Oliver following behind her.

What's left turned out to be not much at all. Any small electronics were gone and the bigger ones were smashed, anything of money value was gone and everything else was destroyed. Windows and anything made out of glass was busted water was everywhere from busted pipes. Why they decided to wreck her pipes, she would never know but judging by the water coming from upstairs, she wasn't the only one with busted pipes.

There was no way she was going to be able to stay here.

She made her way to the bedroom and found it was just as damaged as everything else and while her clothes were thrown everywhere- from someone searching her closet for goods no doubt- most of them were still intact. The two large suitcases that usually stay in her closet were on the other side of the room and she grabbed both of them, handing one to Oliver. He took it without a word and started filling it with anything he could find that wasn't damaged while she filled the other one with clothes and things she could salvage from her bathroom.

It was sad to see her apartment like this, she had lived here for many years but she didn't dare wish it didn't happen. Everyone she cared about made it through this battle and that's all she could wish for.

Felicity was a pretty paranoid person even before she started working with the Arrow so she always kept multiple copies of important documents, pictures, and other things and anything else that she couldn't make a digital copy of was kept in a locked deposit box at a bank outside of the city so she wasn't too worried about that.

It didn't take long to pack up what was salvageable and before long they were in the car heading back to the new lair. He had suggested a hotel but they both knew that realistically every room would be filled with people out of homes because of the attack if they had any money left at all and it was either the new lair or join the people in tents outside. It was like the aftermath of the Glades Earthquake all over again.

They carried her suitcases up to the lair and Felicity just plopped down on the floor by the wall with her tablet. They were definitely going to have to get some furniture for this place pronto, but first, they would need some extra money to do that with. She set to work "borrowing" money from Isabel- it was the Queen's money to start with and it wasn't like Isabel was going to need it anymore. She wasn't touching anything that belong to the company but she knew for a fact that Isabel had some money off to the side. It would be enough to keep them going until they could legally get the company back.

Oliver had only left the room for a few minutes but when he came back Felicity had already curled up on her side, asleep on the floor with her tablet clutched in her hands.

With a small smile, Oliver walked over to where the suitcases were and opened the one he had packed. There really wasn't much he could save from her apartment but he had found a small closet with blankets and pillows and such that had been relatively untouched. He pulled a thick green comforter and a pillow out and walked back over to the sleeping IT girl. Gently, he pulled the tablet away from her hands and then took her glasses off as well, placing them both to the side. He didn't want to risk waking her up to put her head on the pillow so he just put the pillow next to her head figuring she would probably move in her sleep and find it.

He spread the comforter over her and even though he really hadn't planned on it, he ended up sitting next to her for quite a while just watching her.

He was just trying to process everything that had happened since Slade came back but eventually it occurred to him that he must seem really creepy just sitting there staring at her so he finally stood up and walked off to take a shower.

After his shower, it didn't take long for him to wander back over to her, this time with the other pillow and blanket he had saved from her place. He didn't lay down right next to her but considering he had the entire lair floor to sleep on, he was definitely closer to her than necessary.

He needed to be close to her in case someone broke in is what he planned to tell Diggle in case he came in early in the morning and caught them asleep but he didn't need to tell himself that. He knew exactly why he was doing this and it was simply because he wanted to.

There was no way he would say that Slade coming back was a good thing- too many innocent people had died- but it certainly did push him in the right direction and he took great pleasure in the thought that while Slade wanted to destroy everything for him, all he ended up doing was show him that he could be a hero and maybe even allow himself to be happy.

* * *

**The idea of her sleeping on the floor in the lair was just something that would not leave me alone.**


End file.
